1. Introduction to Plants

2. Basic Botany and Our every day life
Jebunnesa Chowdhury

3. World of Plants is divided into:
A- Introducing plants
B- Growing plants (Pollination, Fertilisation, Asexual reproduction)
C- Making food

4. What is a Plant?
Surely, then we can say that anything that does photosynthesis is a plant, right?
To be a plant you have to have chlorophylls a and b,
store sugar as starch,
and have an ancestor that had two anterior whiplash flagellae with star-shaped bases..
All of these, plus the euglenoids and golden algae, fall short of these criteria; though good arguments could be made for the inclusion of some of them (especially red algae.)
But I’m being pickier than many people when I say that.If you want to know much more about it, take systematic

5. What is a Plant?
Most schools used to lump the study of fungi (a science now called mycology) in with their botany departments, and some schools still do this.
Are fungi plants?

6. What is a Plant?
So what is a plant? My definition includes everything from “green algae” to flowering plants, which are considered the most advanced plants. Our focus will be on the land plants, like ferns, coniferous and deciduous trees, grasses, and wildflowers, to name a few.

7. Why Study Plants? Atmospheric gas regulation
A. Production of oxygen gas as a by-product of photosynthesis. The first oxygen producers were thought to be bacteria (like today’s cyanobacteria), which were eventually incorporated as
endosymbionts into plant ancestors. You can’t have eukaryotes without oxygen (so aren’t we all glad it’s there!)
Maybe we’ll take a field trip to an oxygen bar, like this one in Seattle, where customers pay $1/minute to breath 97% O2.

8. Why Study Plants ? Atmospheric gas regulation
B. Oxygen gas (O2) in the atmosphere is converted to ozone (O3)in the stratosphere, as it absorbs UV light. Ozone then absorbs more UV light and is eventually converted back into oxygen gas. This process blocks up to 99% of all the harmful UV rays that would otherwise sterilize the surface of the earth impossible, by causing so many mutation in anything that ventured out of the shade.

9. Why Study Plants?
C. Utilization of CO2. Plants use carbon dioxide to build sugar via the Calvin cycle (a.k.a. “dark reactions”) of photosynthesis. Besides being toxic to humans at elevated levels (as the crew of Apollo 13 nearly experienced), CO2 is a “greenhouse gas,” meaning that it absorbs infrared radiation from earth, keeping that energy
in the atmosphere longer and contributing to global warming.

10. Why Study Plants? Sugars and their polymers
A. “Carb’s are the enemy,” according to Dr. Atkins, right?
I don’t buy it, but then again I’m not losing weight, either. Plants give us simple sugars as well as starches. Even if your on a low-carb diet, you can still thank plants for all the leafy greens you’re (hopefully) eating. And then there’s the fact that all the meat you eat was part of an animal that probably ate plants to live. So almost all our food comes from plants.

11. Why Study Plants? B. Fibers — (Sugars and their polymers)
1. Cotton: As George Costanza showed the
Yankees on Seinfeld, cotton is king.
2. Paper: Average paper use per person in North
America is 2 kg/day.
Fibers such as nylon and rayon are processed from wood fibers.

12. Why Study Plants? Other molecules A. Medicines
Foxglove produces digitalis, which treats heart disease.
Taxol from the bark of the pacific yew tree is one of the most promising anti-cancer drugs.
Rosy periwinkle from Madagascar treats two cancers: juvenile leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease.
Also noteworthy are aspirin, ephedra (banned),
quinine, ginkgolides, and others.

13. Why Study Plants? B. Spices What does that mean?
C. Oils
D. Essential amino acids--There are 8 amino acids that we need in our cells, but we don’t have the ability to produce them ourselves. We can most easily get them from plants. To get the complete set of essential amino acids, a combination of legumes and cereals is best.
What does that mean?
E. Fossil fuels like coal, crude oil, and natural gas are the products of plants that died a long time ago.
The oil from Jatropha curcas is mainly converted into biodiesel for use in diesel engines. 

14. Why Study Plants?
F. I would be remiss not to mention one of the most economically and culturally important “other molecules” that is made from plants…
alcohol.

15. The Father of Botany Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.) Student of Aristotle
Wrote
De causis plantarum (The Causes of Plants)
De historia plantarum (The History of Plants)

16. The Father of Botany
"We must consider the distinctive characters and the general nature of plants from the point of view of their morphology , their behavior under external conditions, their mode of generation, and the whole course of their life"

17. The Father of Botany Classified 500 distinct species of plants
Developed scientific terminology for internal organs and external tissues of plants
Gave the first clear account of plant sexual reproduction and pollination
Discussed the influence of abiotic habitat factors

18. Four major lineages Nonvascular – lack xylem & phloem & seeds
Seedless vascular
– have xylem & phloem, lack seeds
Gymnosperms
- have seeds, but not enclosed
Angiosperms
- enclosed seeds

19. Examples Seedless Vascular Nonvascular Dicot Angiosperm Gymnosperm
Monocot

20. The life cycle of a plant
There are 7 stages in the life cycle of a plant.
seed / fruit Formation
seed dispersal
flower formation
pollination
fertilisation
development
germination

21. Nonvascular lifecycle

22. Sporophyte
In certain plants and algae, nonsexual phase (or an individual representing the phase) in the alternation of generations—a phenomenon in which two distinct phases (a haploid and a diploid phase) occur in the life history of a plant, each phase producing the other.
The alternate, sexual phase is the gametophyte. In the sporophyte phase, a diploid plant body grows and eventually produces spores through meiosis. These spores divide mitotically to produce haploid, gamete-producing bodies called gametophytes. The union of two gametes during fertilization produces a diploid zygote, which divides mitotically to form a new sporophyte.

23. Seedless vascular lifecycle

24. Gymnosperm lifecycle

25. Angiosperm lifecycle

26. Classes of Angiosperms
Monocotyledonae (Monocots)
Very few are annuals
Lilies, grasses, cattails, palms, yuccas, orchids, irises
Dicotyledonae (Dicots)
More primative, 1/6 are annuals
Almost all kinds of trees and shrubs
Snapdragons, mints, peas, sunflowers

27. Monocot characteristics

28. Dicot characteristics

29. Seed Structure Parts are: Seed coat Forms a tough protective layer
Embryo shoot
Embryo – grows into plant
SQA-List the functions of 3 main parts of the seed of a dicotyledon ie. seed coat, embryo, food store
Food store
Provides the embryo plant with food.
Embryo root

30. Seed Dissection
Using a scalpel, carefully dissect your seed in half lengthways.
Draw a diagram of what you can see.
Identify the parts,
and label your drawing
(workbook p13).

31. What affects germination?
Spacing / number of seeds
Humidity / water volume
Type of seeds
Size of seeds
Type of soil / mass
Temperature
Depth of planting
Gases / oxygen levels
Measure by % germination after set time

32. Germination conditions
Germination is the development of a new plant from the embryo in
a seed.
Seeds need certain conditions to germinate:
Water
to activate enzymes which digest stored food
Oxygen
Needed for the production of energy for germination
Warmth
Needed for the enzymes to work effectively.
Optimum temperature
The best temperature for germination of a species of plant is known as the optimum temperature.
The optimum temperature is normally between 15oC and 30oC.

33. Structure of a Flower

34. Petal
Anther
Stigma

35. Carpelfemale parts Stigma Petals Style Stamen male parts Anther Ovary
Filament
SQA-List the functions of the parts of flowers i.e. sepal, petal, stamen, anther, stigma, ovary, nectary
Ovules
Nectaries
Sepals
Collect a cut-out flower, colour it in and put it together.

36. What do the parts do? Sepals- protect the flower when it is a bud
Stamen- anther produces male sex cells (pollen)
Carpel- stigma traps pollen
Style is where pollen tube grows down to female sex cells.
Petals- colourful to attract the insects
Botanical gardens booklet 1- flowers and pollination (blue)
Nectaries- give out sugary liquid to attract insects
Carpel- ovary produces female sex cells (ovules)

37. Flower Part Part Function Petal Stigma Style Ovary Ovule Stamen
These are used to attract insects into the flower, they may have guidelines on them and be scented.
Stigma
Is covered in a sticky substance that the pollen grains will stick to.
Style
It raises the stigma away from the ovary to decrease the likelihood of pollen contamination. It varies in length.
Ovary
Ovules are produced inside this.
Ovule
This will become a seed once fertilisation has taken place.
Stamen
This is the collective name for the anther and the filament.
Flower Stalk
Gives support to the flower and elevates the flower for the insects.
Nectary
This is where a sugary solution called nectar is produced.
Sepal
These protect the flower whilst the flower is developing from a bud.
Filament
This is the stalk of the anther.
Anther
Pollen is produced here.

38. Pollination
Pollination involves the transfer of pollen (male gamete) from the anther to the stigma (outermost female part)
If it is in the same flower it is called
self-pollination.
If between different flowers it is called
cross-pollination
Plants are pollinated by insects or the wind.

39. Insect Pollinated Plants
SQA-Explain the structure of wind and insect-pollinated flowers in relation to sexual reproduction

41. Wind Pollinated Plants